Friday, October 24, 2014

This past week Rob Charpentier, the owner of my local comic book store in Toronto's east end, passed away after a battle with cancer. Rob will be missed by all the loyal patrons and friends at his shop Comics And More at Greenwood and Danforth.

When I first moved from the west end to the east end about seven years ago, I felt pretty displaced and Rob and his store were my anchor. It was great to not only have a comic shop in my new neighbourhood, but to have a really good comic shop with an owner who was willing to take chances on the work of newcomers. At the time I had very little published material under my belt, but Rob was always a very great supporter, making sure to order all off my books and promote them in the store.

Over the years, I got to know Rob better, visiting at least twice a week. Rob was always the first to what new DC projects I'd be doing, based on the stacks of "reference material" I'd come in and buy.

I was saddened to learn about Rob's illness a couple months back. He was unable to work at the store anymore, but continued reading. One of his fears near the end was not getting a chance to see the end of Grant Morrison's long anticipated Multiversity project. (It should be noted that when I reached out to DC Comics about this they helped connect Grant with Rob. Grant spent nearly an hour talking to Rob on the phone in his hospital room. DC and Grant's kindness was not lost on Rob or his friends at the store, and was a real bright spot for Rob near the end).

Rob was a great guy, always full of opinions on the state of comics, but also always willing to support new ideas and new voices in the medium. His death leaves a big hole in our neighbourhood. Rob will be truly missed.

Monday, October 13, 2014

With Matt Fraction and David Aja closing out their epic run on "Hawkeye" -- arguably one of the most critically acclaimed comic book series of the past decade -- Marvel Comics realized it would need a top shelf creative team to commit to the title if it was going to continue its high quality and craftsmanship.

The House of Ideas just hit a bullseye.

During the Axel-In Charge panel at New York Comic Con, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso announced that Eisner Award-nominated writer Jeff Lemire ("Sweet Tooth," "Essex County") and Eisner Award-winning artistRamón Pérez ("Jim Henson's Tale of Sand") would be teaming up on "Hawkeye" beginning in Spring 2015, thereby securing a dream team worthy of the series, which has generated multiple awards including being named an Official Selection for Festival d'Angoulême 2014.

This project marks Lemire's Marvel debut, with the superstar writer recently finished an exclusive deal with DC Comics and branching out with new projects at Image Comics, Dark Horse and Valiant. Once Alsonso and series editor Sana Amanat knew Lemire was open to creating comics for Marvel, Alonso reached out to the cartoonist personally to offer him "Hawkeye." Pérez has been illustrating series for Marvel for a few years, including bestselling titles like "Amazing Spider-Man" and "Wolverine & The X-Men."

In this exclusive first interview about the upcoming series, which will launch with a new "Hawkeye" #1 in March 2015, Lemire, Pérez and Amanat discussed the secret origin of the top secret project, how it was nearly named "Hawkeyes" to reflect the importance of Clint Barton's protégé Kate Bishop, and why the brand of storytelling will be reminiscent of Lemire's work on indie hits like "Essex County" and "The Underwater Welder."

BLOODSHOT REBORN #1

From New York Times best-selling writer Jeff Lemire and red-hot rising star Mico Suayan, Valiant delivers an all-new ongoing series for Valiant's most unrelenting hero!

Bloodshot's nanites made him a nearly unstoppable killing machine. His enhanced strength, speed, endurance, and healing made him the perfect weapon, and he served his masters at Project Rising Spirit – a private contractor trafficking in violence – very well.

Now, Bloodshot is a shadow of his former self. He lives in self-imposed exile, reeling from the consequences of his past life and the recent events that nearly drove him mad. But when a rash of shootings by gunmen who appear to look just like Bloodshot begin, his guilt will send him on a mission to stop the killers, even if it means diving headlong into the violence that nearly destroyed him.